12

The moment Tsuna opened the front door to his house, he wished he hadn't.

There was a girl outside his door. A slightly older girl with long pale pink hair and pretty features upon porcelain skin. She wore a tight sleeveless white top and jeans that showed off the curves of her body and there was a very faint smile on her lips.

Trouble.

"Pizza delivery," she said.

"...We didn't order any?" Tsuna felt like he should slam the door in her face. Toji-san would probably do that but Tsuna would feel bad if he did. He really hoped she had the wrong door but something in his guts told him she came specifically for him.

Trouble.

Of course she wasn't listening. She took out a gas mask and placed it on her face before opening the cardboard box. He couldn't describe what he smelled but as soon as Tsuna caught a whiff of what was in the box, he felt his vision went black. In that brief moment of complete blankness, he was sure he saw the Sanzu river, where his dead grandparents were waving at him from across the red water.

He backed away immediately as he heard something shot past his head. The box the girl was holding flew out of her hands and landed on the sidewalk. A pile of black and purple mesh spilled out and caused the birds flying by to drop to the ground.

Dead.

Tsuna felt something heavy landed on his head and caused him to stumble forward a bit. Reborn had used his head as a stepping platform before landing on ground gracefully.

"Ciaossu, Bianchi."

"Reborn," the girl greeted.

"Reborn, who is this?" asked Tsuna as he rubbed his head.

"This is Bianchi, a freelance hitman that specializes in poisonous cooking. She is known as the 'Poison Scorpion'."

"Ok...like any of that makes sense?" Tsuna muttered under his breath. Still, he tried to smile at the girl. "May I ask why you are here then?"

And trying to kill me nonetheless.

She had tears in her eyes as she stared longingly at Reborn. "I'm here to bring Reborn back. A peaceful life doesn't suit him."

"Ah," Tsuna got it. He knew that look on Bianchi's face. It was the same look a lot of the women Toji-san dumped had. "Are you two…?"

Reborn nodded.

"Bianchi was my fourth lover." The tiny hitman turned to Bianchi and he said sternly, "I can't go back with you. My job right now is to tutor Tsuna."

Tsuna gave up on trying to come up with a response to that, any of that. He merely inched further away from the hitmen.

"Tenth! Would you like some watermelon? The guy at the market said they are supposed to be really sweet!" Gokudera's voice came from outside and Tsuna was unsure if he should tell the other teen this wasn't a good time or not.

The silver haired teen stood outside his house while holding a watermelon but his smile dropped when Bianchi turned to face him.

"...Big sis?"

A small sense of surprise crept onto the girl's eyes. "Hayato."

Within seconds, Gokudera's whole face went pale and tinted green. He shoved the watermelon into Tsuna's arms then apologized, "I'm sorry Tenth! I got to go!"

"Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna yelled worriedly after him as Gokudera turned on his heels to run. The teen wasn't looking at where he was going as he speeded down the street and bumped straight into someone around the corner.

"Oof," Yamamoto rubbed his shoulder, where Gokudera had run right into. "Oh, it's Gokudera."

"Yamamoto-kun?" Tsuna asked, surprised to see his classmate baseball star had been warming up to Tsuna after the incident on the school rooftop. He would come by and join Gokudera and Tsuna on their walks to schools and even started eating lunch with them.

"Baseball idiot? Out of my way." Gokudera cursed silently as he tried to get around the black haired teen.

Yamamoto flashed Tsuna a smile as he blocked Gokudera instinctively. "Hey, Tsuna My dad got some extra watermelons from our regulars so I thought I'd come share some with you."

"That's nice of you..."

Tsuna didn't get to finish his sentence. Bianchi and Reborn walked closer to them and Gokudera went down clenching his stomach as if he had just been stabbed in the guts.

"Gokudera-kun!"

"T-Tenth..." he called weakly. "I'm sorry you got to see me like this."

"Oh, that's right," Reborn spoke up with amusement in his voice. "Bianchi and Gokudera are half-siblings, different mothers to be exact."

"What does that have to do with how he is right now?" Tsuna patted the silver haired teen on the back, hoping it would at least help ease some of the...whatever this panic attack was.

He felt a hand around his wrist and Gokudera went on to tell a short tragedy about his childhood that involved Bianchi's cooking through ragged breath and clenched teeth. Actually, Tsuna wasn't sure if he could call that cooking, not when every ingredient she touched turns into some squirmy black mess that moves. What kind of food still moves after you kill it?

Tsuna felt some kind of sympathy for Gokudera so he invited him into his house to rest while Yamamoto helped carry all the watermelons in. As Gokudera laid on the living room floor with a cool wet towel over his face, Tsuna handed out cold water to everyone in the room. Bianchi had asked to use his kitchen. He had doubts about what she was going to do there but as long as it let her stay out of Gokudera's sight then it was probably fine.

"It sure is hot today," Yamamoto commented as he drained his water.

As if on cue, Reborn hopped onto the table and grabbed the watermelons. "On a sunny day like this it isn't good to just lounge around in the house and do nothing."

Tsuna didn't like where this was going. In fact, he hadn't liked anything that came out of Reborn's mouth so far. "Reborn—"

"These melons need some time to get nice and icy anyways so let's use the time to train. It will help the family members to bond too."

"Family bond?" Gokudera sat up. "Yes, let's do that Tenth!"

He had sparkles in his eyes and Tsuna was finding it hard to say no.

"What are we playing now?" Yamamoto had—still—thought Reborn was just playing a mafia game.

"It's a mafia-style hide-and-seek. You will have to hide from the Its. Those that survived till the end get the watermelons." Reborn placed both of the fruits into a kid's pool Tsuna had set up in the backyard for I-pin and Lambo. He then turned on the hose to fill it with water.

"And the loser has to eat Bianchi's poisonous cooking."

"Wait, Reborn—" That was suicidal!

"Ha," Yamamoto laughed as he placed his hands on the back of his head. "Sounds fun, let's do it."

"Yamamoto—"

The dark haired teen hooked an arm around Tsuna's shoulder as he smiled. "It's fine, Tsuna. It's like those prank shows where they mix vinegar and hot pepper into vegetable juice then the loser has to drink that right?"

Tsuna felt his headache returning. It seemed to be a constant thing whenever Reborn was around. "Wait a moment...Reborn, you said 'Its' right? Why the plural? There's not enough of us."

"Go outside and you will find out."

Hesitantly, Tsuna poked his head over the bushy fence and saw about a dozen men circling the area like hawks. None of them looked friendly or pleasant to look at. The most striking features were their bulky muscles and menacing grins.

"Momokyokai is a yakuza group around these areas. They are really into martial arts," Reborn stated behind him. "Their hideout recently got trashed so they are looking for the culprit. See, they even have a drawing of what the culprit looks like."

The paper in the hitman's hand depicted a very amatuar version of Tsuna. The same brown hair, caramel eyes, and small frame.

FUCK.

"Are you insane? Why do you always have to pull extreme stuff like this?" he yelled at his supposed tutor. He was sure Reborn staged and planned all this. Tsuna doesn't even care how the baby did it, all he knew was that he was in some deep fire because of it.

"Things would be bad if they catch Tsuna so it is up to your family members to help protect the boss."

"No one is going out there to play this stupid game. All we got to do is hide until they leave." Tsuna refused to participate in something so utterly pointless and risky.

"But if you stay here, you might be attracting the danger into your own house." The way Reborn said that irritated Tsuna to no ends. This was his home, where his mom was. There were also two kids sleeping upstairs and he'd hate it if any of them get dragged into this mess.

"Ok, don't worry Tsuna. I've got your back," Yamamoto promised as he stretched out his arms.

"That's my line, you baseball idiot!" Gokudera got up too and he was already digging out dynamites. "I'm the Tenth's right hand so I will protect him with my life!"

Tsuna looked at both of them then down at Reborn.

"The yakuza only has a picture of me right?"

"That's right."

His lips moved. He tried. He really did. He tried with every ounce of will and power in his body but the words still came out. "Fuck you, Reborn."

He even gave the hitman the finger.

#

Tsuna sighed as he perched upon a tree. He was sure no one knew these woods and hills like he did. These trees behind Namimori Elementary were like the back of his hand.

He had split up with Yamamoto and Gokudera somewhere in the past hour of chaos. Since the yakuza men were only targeting Tsuna, it didn't make sense for him to stay too close to them. They were...almost friends if Tsuna dared to say and he didn't like getting people close to him in danger. Except for Toji-san, that was different. The man was danger personified.

"Fuck Reborn," he cussed as he covered his forehead with his hand.

Beneath him, Gokudera dashed away as if there was a tsunami after him. He shouted something along the lines of "Tenth! Where are you?" and "Get the hell away from me!"

Tsuna peaked down, and there was Bianchi running after her half-brother with a plate of...something (he refused to call that 'food') in her hands.

"Cute girl," someone whistled as they sat down besides Tsuna.

The teen rolled his eyes. "Toji-san, no."

"What? I haven't done anything."

Tsuna only smiled at him sweetly until the man raised both of his hands in the air in a position of surrender. "Ok, I won't show up within a six feet radius around her," he pledged.

"Or any of the girls at my school."

"Or any of the girls at your school. Geez, I still have some principles and standards left you know?" The man leaned back against the tree trunk and there was a playful smile on his lips. He was in a simple black T-shirt and a pair of grey joggers today. Tsuna didn't smell any blood on him so the man probably didn't go on any jobs recently.

"Sure you do," Tsuna mocked sarcastically. "Megumi and Tsumiki?"

"Neighbor." Toji extended his arms to Tsuna.

The Fushiguro's neighbor was an elder lady with a full head of white hair. Her sight was bad but she could sing like a lark. She would watch the kids sometimes in exchange for them to help her do odd chores around the house.

"The Cavallone's tenth came to pay me a visit the other night. Know anything about it?"

"Dino-san?"

He frowned. Reborn didn't say anything about where his first apprentice had gone. He just assumed the man and his group had returned to Italy to run his family and all.

But he should have known that nothing was ever simple with Reborn.

Tsuna scooted closer and dropped himself into the older man's embrace. He could smell the sword oil and a very faint scent of gunpowder lingering on Toji.

It was nice. It kind of reminded him of when he was little and they were hiding from the Zenins at the main house. They'd watch the jujutsu sorcerers run around like headless chickens while remaining hidden behind the thick leaves on the trees. It was good for listening in on secrets too.

"He came by to say Hi," the teen explained. "He was Reborn's first student."

Toji hummed as he played with Tsuna's hair. "How did that hitman know to look for me specifically?"

"I don't know..."

Wait.

"Mom." Tsuna looked up into Toji's green eyes. "Mom knows about you. Even if she does think that you were just an imaginary friend. Reborn must have gone to talk to her."

"I'd like to stay imaginary if that's the case," Toji scuffed. "Still think I'm a stubborn idiot for not wanting to meet her in person all these years?"

"You didn't know Reborn was going to happen." Yeah, he was going to start using Rebron's name as a synonym for trouble. "But why would they try to seek you out?"

"Because they want control," Toji stated bluntly as he placed one hand behind his head while leaning into the trunk. He shifted so that they were lying in a more comfortable position on the tree branch. His left leg dangled off the branch to make room for Tsuna. "They want to get to know you. Your strengths and weaknesses, your thought patterns and everything else. They probably came in thinking they'd be dealing with a civilian kid that had absolutely no contact with the shadier side of the world. But you're not it."

The man didn't look all that pleased but he still had a sly grin plastered on his lips. "And now they are trying to find the source of the problem—mainly, me."

"Isn't it a good thing that their candidate already knows their part though?" Tsuna would think that the Vongola would want someone that was already inclined towards the dark side.

"Not when they don't know the reason behind it. They are mafia. They are naturally suspicious of others. What if an enemy family somehow found you first and they have been whispering thoughts and grooming you to be a puppet? Then they'd be handing over their entire estate to the enemy with confetti and wine."

Toji took the can of soda from Tsuna's hand and drank it before Tsuna could stop him.

"Wait, Toj—"

The man spat out the drink. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as his face twisted like he had swallowed a whole lemon.

"Tastes like shit. What is this?"

"That's Bianchi's poisonous cooking." She had slipped it to him while he, Gokudera, and Yamamoto were taking a short break besides a vending machine. He almost drank it by accident. Almost.

Then the yakuza men came for him and they had to run. He forgot to throw it away as he dodged and hid from the adults.

"Poisonous cooking? These mafia sure can get real creative. What's wrong with a good old fashioned sword in the neck?"

Tsuna shrugged but he studied the man's face carefully. "Are you feeling ok?"

"If my stomach can handle cursed spirits, I can deal with whatever she added into that drink. What the hell are you doing with this biohazard anyways?" Toji yawned as he threw the can of evil as far away as he could. Normally Tsuna would have slapped him for littering but he honestly doesn't want to be anywhere near that atrocious thing either. Its existence was an insult to chefs everywhere.

"It's hot today and the can was cold." Tsuna patted the man's abs as if checking that his guts wasn't going to spontaneously combust or erode. "You really are a freak, Toji-san."

"Ha," the man laughed as he ruffled Tsuna's hair. "That reminds me, they even gave me a new nickname. The 'Heavenly Tyrant'! Got to say they definitely have more taste than the jujutsu sorcerers or shamans."

"It's still embarrassing. It sounded like someone my age was trying to come up with a new username for those anonymous online chats about battling cards." He thought the Sorcerer Killer was bad but at least it was to the point. Yet Tsuna guess they couldn't really use that name with those that have no knowledge of cursed spirits.

Toji ignored his comment.

"How are those classmates of yours?"

Tsuna nuzzled his face into Toji's chest. He didn't really want to talk about it. He didn't know how to even start talking about it.

All this time, he had been alone among his peers. He was always "Dame-Tsuna", no good at anything and a burden to everyone else. He didn't want Nana to know about the bullying or why he always came back with bruises and scratches over his body. She...even if she doesn't say it Tsuna knew she missed her husband. The man was never home, never here.

Did she ever wonder what her husband was doing? Did she ever think he had abandoned them? Tsuna doesn't know and he was afraid to ask. He was afraid all he would get was another forced smile.

And Tsuna didn't want to make her worry even more. He couldn't.

But his heart still felt twinges of pain whenever Nana attributed his scars to his clumsiness. The words and tears would threaten to pour out. Tsuna had felt out of place then, like he didn't belong in his house or at school. That was why he ran to Toji's whenever he could. At least, there he had a place. No one would chide or make fun of him for tripping over his own feet.

Sure, Toji-san cursed a lot and didn't really know how to deal with children. But he was always there to catch Tsuna if he fell.

Tsuna felt weird. A light tingle spreaded through his heart.

He didn't know why exactly.

"...I like them. Sure, they are rowdy and sometimes they are a real pain. And they might fight a lot but I think they are actually getting along well?" He wasn't all that confident in the last part but Tsuna didn't mind it when Gokudera and Yamamoto came over. As long as Reborn wasn't meddling or scheming something, it was actually nice to hang out with people his age once in a while. "It's nosy but it feels nice, I guess."

There was a short silence between them. Tsuna could hear the leaves rustling as the wind swept by. It sounded like the trees were crying.

"Good for you," Toji finally sighed as he pressed Tsuna's head down. "What are you going to do about Reborn then?"

"He will give up soon." Tsuna was sure they would have to find someone else if he kept refusing. He wasn't cut out to be a leader, let alone being the head of a mafia family. Also, Tsuna knew he wouldn't be a good one.

He wasn't someone that could choose the greater good over those he cared about. He couldn't throw the ones close to him away like pawns in a game for the sake of victory.

Reborn would have to accept that and leave eventually.

Hey, there was still his dad. If it really comes down to it, the man can probably do it. No matter what those rules said, if they were desperate enough, they'd do it.

"Megumi's got the two dogs under full control now." Toji's voice came from above him. "He can summon them for longer too. Twenty minutes before the nose bleed starts. He's going to train with some fly heads this weekend."

"This soon?"

"It's the Ten Shadows. He can do it." There was a kind of carelessness in the man's voice. He wasn't wrong though. It was the ten shadows. The one technique that was said to be able to rival the Gojo's Limitless. "Want to join?"

Tsuna thought for a moment. He could probably sneak away from Reborn if he tried hard enough. Also, he didn't want to leave Megumi's training fully with Toji-san. He was sure it was going to become one of the kid's childhood traumas if he did.

So, he said, "Yeah, count me in."